Delirium Café Bar Complex, Brussels, Belgium

Before my flight back to Michigan, I spent the night in Brussels.  I looked up my hotel in Google Maps, then had the Google supercomputer show me anything beer related nearby.  It showed me this place called Delirium Café.  A brief internet search said something about 2,400 beers and holding the Guinness Book World Record for bar with the most beers.  And it was only ½ block from my hotel.  What a deal.  After checking in to the hotel, I walked around a bit.  I was in what seemed to be a downtown major area.  Lots of car-free walking roads, with shops and beautiful architecture around.  A lot of tourists, but for good reason because it was quite scenic.  As I slowly honed in on Delirium, the path went through narrow streets that were crowded with restaurants with sidewalk dining.  It seemed each one had some used car salesman type guy lurking outside fronting as a maitre d’ trying to lure you in.  Somehow I luckily must have given off an air of “don’t bother me, I’m not interested in eating at your restaurant” because they didn’t really bother with me, I just saw their techniques on other tourists.

The Delirium “complex” is in a good location, having all the storefronts in a narrow dead-end cul-de-sac type street.  They have 8 bars, all with related, but different themes.  The relation is alcohol.  I won’t repeat all the details and stats of all these places that specialized in beers, tequilas, absinthe, rum, etc. as you can find it here: http://www.deliriumcafe.be/.  I of course concerned myself with the main place, with 3 levels of beer.  The basement had the mega-book of something like 2,400 beers (in bottle).  I saw the book, but am kicking myself for not actually looking through it.  I figured why bother since I was drinking off tap.

Anyway, on the main/ground floor was their “taphouse” that had 27 beers on tap, changing them every week.  The upper floor was called “The Hoppy Loft”, which had about 8 taps, and beers in bottle, supposedly specializing in hoppy beers that were mostly imported from the U.S., Britain, Norway.  I started off in the Hoppy Loft, having missed my American IPAs while drinking all the yeasty Belgian ales.  I was disappointed to find a collection of Belgian beers on tap (not hoppy), and one hoppy one from Dark Horse Brewery in Michigan (Special Reserve Dark).  I then went down to the main floor and tried a few Belgian beers on tap that I’d seen but hadn’t tried yet.  Equally disappointing as on bottle I found.  Of the 27 beers, 25 of them were Belgian, with 2 imports- Guinness, and Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA.

I thought that was pretty cool that Michigan was representing the U.S. there, so I ordered one.  It was the best beer I had since being in Belgium for 2 weeks.  I had a few more, then called it a night- happy.

Hemelrijk Beer Bar, Hasselt, Belgium

I went to Belgium on business for 2 weeks.  We stayed in a town in the northeastern corner called Hasselt.  It was a nice town with nice “pedestrianized” streets blocked off from traffic weaving around to and fro throughout the town amongst dozens of shops, interesting restaurants and bars.  I was also lucky enough to have been staying in a hotel near a great beer bar, called Hemelrijk in Hasselt.  A short 5-minute stroll down the meandering cobblestone roads led me to this place.  I found it listed in Wikipedia on a discussion of Belgian beer, and of course found the place was already well-known by colleagues from work, passing on the info via word of mouth from traveler to traveler.  It was one of those places that felt like it was your own personal discovery of the town’s well-kept secret.  But the frequent crowds and large turnover of customers suggested otherwise.

The place had a very cool feel on a quiet, semi-dead end corner with tables sitting outside to allow enjoyment of the outside air while drinking your favorite brew.  Inside was a scattering of various tables in a few different rooms, each room quite interesting and almost historical looking.  The place was impeccably clean.  A fairly large bar made up the main room, with giant bookcases behind the bar with hundreds of different beer glasses.  Apparently in Belgium, you can’t really say you brewed your own beer unless you likewise have your own glassware created for it with a unique shape and your own beer logo on it.  So of course a place like Hemelrijk, with 300 different beers in bottle (oh, and 3 on tap, too), you need a lot of shelves to store all that glassware.  I suppose this is a bit of an exaggeration because there wasn’t a 1:1 ratio of beers to glassware, as some of the beers I tried didn’t have a matching glass, but it was pretty close to 1:1.  I’m sure they loved me as I tried one, then a different one, and then a different one, all the while creating my own pile of dirty glasses for them to wash.  But that’s okay because they got to benefit from my overly-generous American tipping.  This was a combination of bad habits dying hard (used to tipping in the bar), and all this funny-looking money that you can’t exactly tell what you’re giving them.

They had a nicely bound book/menu that sat around on tables and the bar for you to peruse to select your beer.  Each one listed its color, ABV, and a few words about what its main tastes were.  They were also organized into 3 or so major categories, plus a small selection of mass-market stuff (Budweiser, Guinness, etc).  The menu was a challenge that I dove into.  I felt like a WWII code cracker as I would take the beer that I liked, study the Flemmish/Dutch words describing the taste, and try to find another beer listed that used some of those same words.  Some of the names of the beers also helped as they were partially English, or English-sounding anyway.  I found a few that I enjoyed, although most of them didn’t really hit the spot for me.  There’s a specific taste to the Belgian beers, I think it’s the yeast type used combined with the bottle conditioning that leaves that yeast in every bottle.  I know there are some that like that flavor, as much as I love the taste of super-strong hops in American IPAs.  Although none of the beers made me really excited, the experience was great sitting in the place looking at all the glassware, studying a menu I couldn’t read for hours, and playing Belgian Beer Roulette.

Germany- Cologne (home of Kolsch beer), Dusseldorf (home of Alt beer)

In the middle of my 2-week business trip to Belgium, I had a free weekend.  At first I was contemplating seeking out one of the Trappist Monasteries that brewed/sold beer because that seemed pretty cool.  But then I thought about my recent evenings of failed attempts at finding a Belgian beer that I liked/enjoyed.  I imagined myself being at some monastery brewery with a really cool surrounding, but having more of that yeasty-tasting beer.  I couldn’t do it.

Knowing that Cologne was just across the border in Germany about a 1.5 hour drive away, I decided I’d pack up and head east for the weekend.  I’ve been in Cologne several times before, but that was back before I was a committed beer nut.  Since there are a few US craft beer Kolsch’s that I’ve had that I enjoyed, I figured I owed it a fresh look at the home of Kolsch.  Cologne has a nice downtown, with lots of winding streets, cool looking old buildings, tons of cafes and bars, and lots of good squares with tables to sit at and enjoy the surroundings.  The Saturday I was there, it was a really nice sunny summer day so the tables were overflowing with people smiling, laughing, and enjoying the day.

I started off at the Fruh brewery, and got a spot at the bar with a view looking out the open doorwall onto the tables and crowds outside.  The efficiency of these places is downright admirable.  I’m not even sure if they asked if I wanted a beer on the first one, it just sort of magically appeared soon after I sat down.  And once the glass got low, another one would appear.  They’d take the empty, put another tally mark on my coaster and be off.  The glasses at first glance make you think they’re small.  But the 200 ml size turns out to be the perfect size to ensure the beer stays fresh and cool.  Also sized to be deceptive enough to make you think they’re small, so what could one more hurt?  Looking at the picture of this Kolsch, it appears pale and seemingly flavorless.  But in reality it’s actually quite tasty (in my beer review section).

I got out of there in time to avoid getting sucked in to drinking my day away perched on that stool.  I tried to find a place with Reissdorf Kolsch, which I found.  But it wasn’t nearly as satisfying.  Plus they gave me the “visitor sized” glass which was 500 ml.  It almost seemed grotesque.  So large that it didn’t seem as fresh and seemed like it was getting too warm by the end.  I guess you can’t win ‘em all.  But then I was off and up the road to Dusseldorf.

Dusseldorf is a different kind of city than Cologne.  It has a much bigger city feel to it.  I came to Dusseldorf for the beer.  After a week of yeasty Belgian beers, I was missing my American IPAs.  I knew Dusseldorf had its own style of beer, much like Cologne and its Kolsch, so after an internet search said “copper in colour, dry and with a long hoppy finish”, I was sold.  Dry sounded beautiful compared to the yeasty “wetness” I’d been experiencing, and “hoppy” reminded me of all my Michigan IPAs I was missing from home.  It was the best decision I ever made.  The Alt was beautiful- fresh, hoppy, nice healthy head on top, clean tasting, and addictive.  It was in a slightly larger size than the Kolsch in Cologne, something like 250 ml.  But it was similar service and proportional-right-sizedness.  They kept an eye on your glass, and as it got low, magically another glass appeared.  Marks were kept on the coaster again.  The 250 ml went down in the same ~3 minutes as the 200 ml of Kolsch because it was a little bit more delicious (at least to me).

My only bad experience of Dusseldorf was my own fault.  The large, big city feel of the town fooled me into thinking the city was laid out in a grid like Detroit.  Or close enough to a grid that I could roughly do an east-west-north-south thing.  Armed with a micro-map on the sleeve of my room key cardholder (more like an “artists interpretation” of a map), I headed out in the wrong direction.  I was thinking I was heading towards old town, but didn’t quite make it.  Along the way, I saw lots of young people dressed up crazy.  I was trying to figure out what the style was and why it was so prevalent.  Best I could describe it was people were dressed up like characters out of a Japanese anime.  Later, someone told me there was a Japanese Festival going on.  Oh, OK.  As luck would have it, I spotted a place that looked like a brewery across the street.  I pulled up a stool at one of the street-side tables, and in short order one of the brewery staff came out and delivered my first glass of delicious Alt.  After a few more, I felt recharged and ready to try again to find old town.

Further walking and more careful consideration of my artists map, I found my way there.  This part of town was packed with crowds.  The streets were pedestrianized, and pedestrians were making the most of it.  Lots of restaurants with tables outside, and the nice weather for Japan Day brought the crowds out.  I hit the next Alt brewery.  It was packed.  Lots of revelers enjoying the drink.  About every 10 – 15 minutes, there was a glorious  sound of an empty barrel being rolled back to the storeroom and a full one being rolled out.  From there, I walked around the festival (watching people carrying homemade scythes, dressed up like unicorns, and general ridiculousness).  Then down some more streets where I tried a couple different Alts.  By this time, I decided the first place I was at had the best beer, so I figured I’d return there to finish off.  This is where the afore-mentioned lack of north-south-east-west street grid comes into relevance.  I’ll give you the short story.  I got lost, walked 5 miles trying to find the brewery,
ended up at a train station, took a cab back to my hotel to regain my bearings, then finally walked back to the first brewery.  The beer was worth the walk.

Toronto C’est What (beer bar), Mill Street Brewing, general areas in between

I’d seen ads for C’est What in some brewing news magazines and newspapers.  I can’t remember what attracted me from the ads, but it was on our list for a visit.  Good thing we had GPS or some sort of directions to find it, because it was nothing more than another sign on the street in a short strip of a couple cool-looking restaurants.  C’est What is in the basement.  So going down the stairs you come into a rather large, expansive basement bar.  There were about 2 – 4 rooms all joined through large doorways/openings, but some exposed brick walls separating them.  There were 2 long bars, some pool/foosball tables, and a bunch of tables for eating and/or drinking.  C’est What specializes in craft beer.  I think they were all Canadian, a lot of them local.  Everything was on draft, not sure if there were bottles.  Website says 36 beers on tap, which seems about right.  A few of them they brew themselves.  We had several different things, all of them good.  And the amazing thing was just seeing the trays of beers the waitstaff was loading up to take out to customers- yellows, browns, coppers, blacks- all colors with a nice fresh frothy head on top.  Everything looked absolutely delicious, even if I didn’t know what it was.  And the beers were all good sized, Imperial Pints.  As Wikipedia just told me, the UK-sized Imperial Pint is 568 ml (19.2 US ounces), while the US Pint is 473 ml (16 US ounces).  We found out after that, that Toronto was big into the Imperial Pints, and anywhere we ordered a draft beer, we got this gigantic glass of beer.  It was almost intimidating at times, but we managed.

Funny enough, when we were planning to go to Toronto for beer, we were planning on visiting the Steam Whistle Brewery.  The beer is one of my favorites from Canada.  By the time we got up there, and headed out of the hotel, we found they were closing in about 45 minutes and they were a 20 minute walk.  So in the end, we missed out visiting them.  I’m assuming the brewery is cool (it’s in an old train roundhouse I think, so how can it not be cool), and I’m sure fresh-from-the-source works well there and it’s delicious.

We visited various other locations in the evening.  The only other place of mention was the Mill Street Brewery.  It’s in the Distillery District, which is a very cool location.  I didn’t take the tour or anything so I can’t tell you all the specific historic details of the place.  What I can tell you is that it’s an area filled with big old red brick buildings, warehouses, and what appear to be old industrial areas.  Of course, one can assume from the name that these buildings used to be distilleries.  There appears to be an ecclectic collection of interesting of shops, art stores, restaurants, and some bars.  The notable beer joint we visited was the Mill Street Brewery.  It was a very cool place, with high ceilings, lots of dark wood.  There was a huge bar, lots of tables for eating, and a giant area in the middle with large brewing boilers behind glass.  With this being the last stop of the night, and after a fair walk, I can’t tell you a whole lot about it because we were pretty beat.  But definitely a place I’d go back to check out.

Southern Tier Brewery in Lakewood, NY (and side trip to Fatheads Cleveland)

On the drive from Detroit to Lakewood, NY, almost exactly in the middle is Cleveland.  And having frequented the original Fatheads in Pittsburgh’s Southside several times, I knew that the halfway point stop off to visit the new Cleveland location would probably be worth it.  Unlike the Southside location that’s smack dab in the middle of a very cool neighborhood with lots going on an interesting architecture, the only thing Fatheads Cleveland’s got going for it is its name and its building.  On the corner of a major thoroughfare, Fatheads anchors a rather non-descript strip mall.  According to their website, they’ve got something like 32 beers on tap.  That didn’t distract me much, as my eyes caught the name of a beer I remember being great in Pittsburgh- Fatheads Head Hunter IPA (7.2% ABV, 87 IBU).  It was equally delicious here.  Worth the trip, but hard to leave after just one on a lunchtime pit stop.  Of course the food menu is equally amazing in its own way, with every sandwich creation you read on the menu making you say, “No, this is the one.  I’m going to order this one…”  Anyway, on to the main trip.

We drove into town and checked into a hotel in Jamestown, NY.  That’s the nearest town with a few hotels near the Southern Tier Brewery, and Jamestown is rather small with a population of 30,000.  We called a cab and got a ride out there.  The ride was an interesting “alternate tour” of Jamestown as our cab driver told us all the side highlights of Jamestown.  Coming into town it was obvious they were very proud of Lucille Ball being from Jamestown with murals   everywhere, a museum with a line of tour buses outside, etc.  Our cab driver told us Lucille was a woman of bad reputation in the town, and she got to Hollywood by sleeping with the mayor.  I wondered why this ~21 year old had such a chip on his shoulder about Lucille and figured it was just resentment that the only thing in town that brought in tourists and visitors was Lucille Ball.  So we shrugged it off.  Then he told us that as it was the weekend, the one hotel in Lakewood would be pretty booked/full of course.  When we asked why, he gave us an “of course” type story that it was because the drug dealers come in from out of town to set up shop there because the hotel was cheap.  Nice.  Glad we were staying in Jamestown.  The town, as it turned out, had a good collection of bars and nightclubs all in good close walking distance of each other and a nice relaxed feel to the nightlife there.  So we had a good time.

But on to the brewery.  It was way out of town on its own in an industrial type building.  Obviously it was made for brewing, but they squeezed in a small indoor bar area with a couple tables and an area to sell T-shirts and other assorted logo stuff.  The bar had a nice feel to it, rather woody, but relatively new feeling.  The outdoor area was quite nice.  There was a huge outdoor roof that covered several tables, but was high enough up to make it very open-air feeling.  Since the weather was nice the grassy area also had several tables/picnic tables sprawling out around leading up to a nice-looking rough-cut wood stage.  I assume they have nice concerts at some point during the outdoor-weather season, which would probably be nice.  The place had a very nice, clean, “upper middle class” feel to it, but it was a mix of middle aged professionals, younger generation folks, and some “working class” construction workers. It was all a very laid-back feel, so the eclectic mix seemed just fitting.  The beer of course was good, although not overly amazing, which I was surprised at.  There are a few beers of theirs that I buy in the store and I really enjoy, so I figured it would be truly awesome at the source.  In the end, they pretty much tasted like they taste when I buy them in the store, which is fine because they were still good.  The place really started picking up and getting busy at dark, so we were thinking the 10:00 closing time must surely be a guideline, not a rule.  We were wrong.  Within several minutes of the 10:00 last call, the packed place really cleared out.

 Bell’s (Kalamazoo, MI), Arcadia (Battle Creek, MI), Darkhorse (Marshall, MI), Sleeping Bear (Random exit off I-94, MI)

We caught the bus from Copper Canyon Brewery in Southfield around 9:00 AM.  Once we all signed the waiver saying we were taking responsibility for ourselves, the 2 Cornelius kegs were tapped (Irish Stout and an IPA- both from Copper Canyon).  By 9:30 for sure, we were into our first beer.  The bus trip out to Bell’s took about 2 – 3 hours from when we left.  Getting lost at the pickup spot for the Ann Arbor group didn’t help any, of course.  By the time we got our beers at Bell’s and sat down, we were all feeling pretty buzzed.  I suppose that’s the hazard of giving us free self-service access to 2 kegs of beer and a long bus ride with nothing to do but sit around and talk.  In hindsight, a little slower start to the drinking would have left clearer memories of the breweries/beers later, but that’s why they say it’s 20/20.

Bell’s Eccentric Café was quite cool.  Interesting old brick place, high ceilings, stained glass windows, and a ton of Bell’s stuff on tap.  All the usual favorites, plus they had 3 or so “Experimentals” that didn’t have a name yet, just a description, and Hopslam on cask.  The food was good, and I noticed the place seemed quite full of people/families there for lunch (which I would do to my family too if I lived there).  The Two-Hearted IPA was absolutely amazing.  I had a hard choice between something that I’d already had and knew I liked-
knowing that fresh from the source would be even better, or one of the Experimentals that could only be bought there.  I’m glad I went with the Two-Hearted and was blown away, rather than try something new and potentially being disappointed.

Arcadia was quite spacious, seemed to be in an old main street department store.  The beer was all good, nothing that totally blew me away.

Dark Horse was a cool place.  It seemed like they had expanded at some point, as the building inside looked like it was 2 different vintages.  But it had a very cool and earthy feel inside, with a low ceiling that was covered completely with mugs hanging up.  I don’t know if these were mug club mugs or just decoration, but it made it very cool looking nonetheless.  They had an outdoor area as well that we enjoyed sitting outside and soaking up some sun rays.  They had a small outdoor stage there where someone told us they have bands every now & then.  I know I love Dark Horse beers, but by this point, several beers in at the breweries with the gaps in between filled with bus beer, my taste buds were getting a bit, “Yeah, whatever.”  So I’m pretty sure it was good, but doesn’t distinctly stand out.  They did have a large gift shop with tons of shirts, sweatshirts, hats, etc.  They all looked pretty good, but were a little pricey for my souvenir taste.

The last stop was Sleep Bear Winery & Microbrewery.  This was just off of I-94, in what must have been an old restaurant of gas station type place.  Pretty unattractive from the outside, and in the middle of nowhere right next to the interstate.  Inside was bright & lively.  Of course our busload of 40 drunks surely livened the place up, but I was surprised at how many random folks kept coming in and having a couple of drinks.  There was a free pizza buffet here, that helped cap off the day’s beer.  At this point, my thinking brain got the better of my drinking brain, and I switched to 100% water.  So I can’t tell you if the beer was any good.  Not that I would have been much use as a taste-tester at this point anyway.  I do recall some of the pizza being quite gross though, and that’s what I blame on the stomach virus that got me the next day and stayed with me a week.  I decided none of my friends got it because they were drinking beer, while I was just drinking water.  If I had been drinking beer, the alcohol would have killed the food poisoning germs hiding out on it, and I would have been fine.  Or maybe it was the water itself, perhaps run-off from a nearby farm and filled with chicken poop or something.

After some good napping on the bus back, I was feeling refreshed enough to try to help the cause of polishing off the bus beer.  The IPA was gone, but there was Stout left.  However, I decided that Stout that had sat at room temperature all day long on the bus wasn’t so good 12 hours later.  We got back to Copper Canyon about 9:00PM that night.  All in all, quite a good time, and well worth the $60 ticket price.  Of course we paid for all of our drinks at each place, but these were all top-notch breweries (except the unknown Sleeping Bear- which still remains unknown to me, other than a life lesson of not eating pizza from a buffet when your sense of good & bad is somewhat blurred by a day full of alcohol).

Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Beer Festival

February 25th, 2012, Comstock Park (Grand Rapids), MI

This was the 7th annual winter festival for the MI Brewers Guild, and fortunately I’ve been to 6 of them now.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a perfect attendance record.  This year, the festival must have gained in popularity for some reason because everything sold out early.  Usually, I book the hotel over Christmastime, then take my time in January to buy tickets online and finalize plans.  This year, I was surprised to find tickets online sold out in early January, and most of the places around town to buy them were also sold out.  I bought the last 3 tickets in the state when I bought combo Festival/Bus tickets from Motor City Brew Tours.  They sold out their first 1,500 (out of 6,000) in a few hours online.  I noticed that as a result, for the first time they’ve started posting the date when tickets go on-sale for future festivals.  Summer festival is in July, but they’ve clearly communicated tickets go on sale on May 1st.  I’m going to be ready!

I didn’t want the bus ride, because we always stay over in Grand Rapids and enjoy a few craft beer hot spots Saturday night, but it was my only way to tickets.  So we paid the $80 for bus + festival, then told them we weren’t taking the bus and asked them to just mail me the tickets ($40 price for tickets alone).  The usual Holiday Inn hotel downtown was sold out of all but the most expensive rooms, but we were able to find a room at a good price at the Amway Grand Plaza hotel.  The downtown area has many great restaurants and bars/pubs all within easy walking distance.  And the town is very clean, with a lot of attractive older buildings that have been kept well maintained.

We got to town Saturday morning, grabbed some lunch, and headed to Hopcat bar.  We missed the bus (left ½ hour earlier than they told me it would when I reserved 3 spots), but met a couple of other festival-goers that were taking a minivan cab out there, so we joined in.  The line was huge.  We probably got there about 12:30 (1/2 hour before they opened the gates), and based on the fact they sold 6,000 tickets, I’d guess there was

probably 5,000 – 5,500 people standing in line in front of us.  We figured it would take an hour to get through all of us.  Amazingly it took 15 minutes because they were very organized in checking IDs ahead of time, etc.

Festival was fun of course, but freezing cold.  We dressed prepared for it, but every time I had to take a glove off to mark down some tasting notes, I swore I was getting frostbite.  The more popular places, as usual, had huge lines.  So it was a combination of alternating between a lesser-known place to get quickly served, followed by standing in the long line and drinking down the beer.  This worked well for getting a mix of the old favorites, and a few new ones at the same time.  My taste ratings are below.  After the festival, caught a taxi back downtown and spent some time at Founders brewery.  Of course great beer, and it was packed.  Couldn’t get back into Hopcat (without paying a $15 or $20 cover charge!!), so we stopped off at some other non-descript place on the way from

Founders to Amway Grand.  Of course the final topping on the evening was a burrito take-out from Taco Boy, across the street from Amway.

1. Witch’s Hat Brewing Co, Big Doedish Double IPA (6 out of 5 stars. Yes, I know. But this was really really awesome and the only way for me to convey how great it was.  This was a new brewery and a very special find.  Of note, my 2 other companions each had something different than me and also said the beer was very good.)
2. Dark Horse Brewing Co, Double Crooked Tree (5.5 out of 5 stars).
3. Shorts Brewing Co, Hopstache IPA w/ grapefruit zest (5 out of 5 stars).
4. Lily’s Seafood Grill & Brewery, Sven & Ollies IPA (5 out of 5 stars).
5. Bell’s Brewery, Two-Hearted IPA (5 out of 5 stars).
6. New Holland Brewing Co, Double Hatter (5 out of 5 stars).
7. Copper Canyon Brewery, Northwestern Gold (4 out of 5 stars).
8. Michigan Beer Cellar, Double Black Magic Double Rye PA (4 out of 5 stars).
9. Olde Peninsula Brewpub, Bourbon Stout (4 out of 5 stars).
10. Michigan Brewing Co, India Pale Ale (3.5 out of 5 stars).
11. Right Brain Brewery, Barrel Aged Ale (3.5 out of 5 stars).
12. Rochester Mills Beer Co, Cornerstone IPA (3.5 out of 5 stars).
13. Motor City Brewing Works, Farmhouse Ale (3 out of 5 stars).
14. Arcadia Brewing Co, Hop Rocket (2 out of 5 stars).
15. Blue Tractor Brewery, Oak-Aged “Hands off my Goat” (2 out of 5 stars).